Aarcflick

Donna Summer could play more movingly beautiful notes than any other pop singer of her time or since. I'm not sure even Whitney Houston, great as she was, reached the scintillating heights that culminate in "Last Dance" (although she comes pretty close on "I Will Always Love You"). Mariah Carey (no relation to me) pulls off impressive vocal acrobatics, but to my ear she can't match Donna's bell-like brilliance in the higher registers. And Donna in the lower registers, well, her voice vibrates with a visceral resonance. In the documentary Love to Love You, Donna Summer, which has its world premiere today at the Berlin Film Festival, we can revel in that voice. But directors Roger Ross Williams and Brooklyn Sudano, Donna's daughter, aren't looking for a jukebox musical experience, content to press play on one hit after another. Rather, they create a portrait of a woman and artist far more complex, and talented, than has been appreciated. Summer not...